"So, do you think this is our fault?" Andrew asked as they stood on the wall of the town, waiting for the Beast Tide.

"In what way?" Greg cocked his head. "Like, because we're here, or actually something we did?"

"Because we're here." Andrew replied. "I don't think there's anything we could have actually done to cause this."

"Unless Victomia did something." Greg commented.

"Victomia?" Victoria raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? I needed a name for when you're both here." Greg shrugged, gesturing to her and Thomas.

Victoria shook her head. "You could just use our names you know."

"Eh, too much work. Victomia is easier." Greg waved dismissively.

Thomas snorted. "Whatever. Anyway, I don't think there's anything we could have done. I mean, unless this has something to do with the Hidden Blades…"

"This is not the Hidden Blades." Tiffany retorted. "We want to conquer, not destroy and a Beast Tide is just destruction."

"Okay, so this is probably just World bullshit." Andrew sighed. "Being us is starting to get annoying."

"Honestly, it's probably our fault for sitting around doing nothing." Greg muttered.

"We weren't doing nothing!" Victoria countered. "We were cultivating!"

"Okay, fine, we weren't doing anything interesting." Greg rolled his eyes.

Victoria glared at him. "Then what should we have done? Run off into the forest and die a couple thousand times?!?"

"I mean… that could have been interesting, right?" Greg shrugged. "Besides, we don't have to send our main bodies to do that. We can send expendable duplicates to get into shenanigans while we focus on getting stronger."

"He has a point." Chris commented.

"But I don't have expendable duplicates." Andrew frowned.

"But couldn't you?" Chris cocked his head.

"I mean… not easily." Andrew's expression twisted. "I'd need to kill something."

"Couldn't I just make you a body?" Greg offered.

Andrew blinked. "Maybe?"

"Me too?" Victoria elbowed Greg. "It takes a lot of points to make a body from scratch."

"Sure, why not?" Greg shrugged. "Bodies for everyone!"

"Victoria!" Horace exclaimed, rushing over to her. "I've just heard about the Beast Tide! How can I help?"

Victoria blinked at him, before pointing at her father. "Go talk to him? I'm not in charge around here."

Horace blinked, before flushing. "Ah, yes, right." He coughed, before heading towards Albert.

"That dude is weird." Andrew muttered, watching him go.

"I'm not sure we're in any place to judge that." Greg chuckled.

"No, no, he's right. Horace is weird." Victoria grumbled.

"He has a crush on Victoria." Thomas added.

Greg blinked. "But she's fifteen. And he's in his twenties or something."

"Probably older." Tiffany commented. "Cultivation slows down the aging process. He could be anywhere from twenty-five to two hundred."

"So… he's a pedophile?" Greg frowned, giving Horace a calculating look.

"I don't think so… isn't pedophilia defined culturally?" Chris muttered. "At least, as long as you're post-puberty. Can't really argue that Victoria isn't sexually developed."

"I was engaged…" Victoria muttered. Not to mention what she was doing with Beatrice.

"Plus, mentally she's like eighteen or something, right?" Andrew added.

"Yeah, but he doesn't know that." Greg grumbled with a frown. "Okay, fine, I won't hold it against him. For now."

"Yes, because the Unification Realm Cultivator was so worried about your approval." Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"Hey, just because I can't do anything about him now doesn't mean I won't be able to eventually!" Greg protested.

"Not if you refuse to cultivate." Andrew muttered just loud enough for Greg to hear.

Greg scowled. "Stupid Runes."

"By the way, aren't you supposed to be making walls or something?" Victoria rolled her eyes.

"Why would I make a wall when you already have a perfectly good one sitting right here?" Greg stomped on the wall. "I already took over the whole thing. Though…" Greg frowned. "It seems like my smoke capacity is a lot smaller here than in my World. I can only keep about a quarter of the wall as smoke before the World forces me to make it real."

Victoria blinked, looking around at the large wall surrounding the town. "That's still a lot of smoke."

"Sure, but in my World I could make an entire city." Greg sighed.

Victoria shook her head before turning to Chris. "How about you? How did the evacuation go?"

"I think I made a mistake." Chris frowned. "Getting everyone into the world was easy enough, particularly once your dad's men started showing up, but… well, see, I figured I'd provide them food and shelter while they were there, and… I don't think they're going to want to leave."

Victoria blinked. "You- what did you give them?!?"

"TV and orange chicken." Chris shrugged.

"Damn it, Chris!" Victoria groaned, burying her face in her hands. "Fuck it, at least they're safe." She sighed. "Let's just focus on the Beast Tide."

"What am I even going to do here?" Andrew grumbled. "All I got going for me right now is the fact that I can't die. Plus, if I do, I'm going to lose all my progress with my Runes!"

"Can't you just yank out their cores?" Greg cocked his head.

"Not if they're too much stronger than me." Andrew frowned.

"So deal with the shitlings." Greg shrugged. "It's a Beast Tide right? There has to be some weaker ones you can take care of, right?"

"Yeah, but how much help will that really be?" Andrew sighed.

"The majority of the people standing on this wall are Unawakened." Victoria pointed out. "You don't necessarily need to defeat the Rune Beasts, you just need to keep them at bay until the Cultivators can take care of them, and you're better suited to that than the majority of the people here."

Andrew paused. "Okay, fair."

"Here they come!" One of the Hunters yelled, pointing into the distance as a horde of Rune Beasts appeared on the horizon, rushing towards the walls.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Everyone get into position!" Albert roared. "Victoria, with me!"

Victoria joined Albert while the others took up positions on the wall, Andrew, Chris, and Greg standing with the regular soldiers while Thomas, Tiffany, and Ursa sat back with the Cultivators, waiting for the powerful Rune Beasts to reveal themselves before jumping in. Andrew and Greg had gotten spears to use, while Chris pulled out his bow. "Are you seriously going to use that? You know it isn't effective against Rune Beasts." Greg commented.

"Oh?" Chris raised an eyebrow, before beginning to shoot arrows into the distance, hitting several areas before opening portals on the ground as the Rune Beasts charged over them. Rune Beasts yowled as they fell, tripped, stumbled, and got pushed into the portals. A few managed to avoid them by going around or leaping over the portals, but the sheer pressure of the horde ensured there was a steady stream falling in. "Seems pretty effective to me."

"That doesn't count." Greg scowled. "You aren't using the bow, you're using portals that are facilitated by the bow! If you threw rocks, it'd be the same thing!"

"But I used a bow, and it was effective." Chris pointed out. "What are you going to do? Stab a couple?"

"Oh ho ho, it is on!" Greg grinned, turning into a cloud of smoke and diving towards the horde. A few of the Rune Beasts balked, but just like with Chris's portals, the horde wouldn't let them stop as the smoke entered their bodies and the Runes Beasts began to dissolve. "Hahahaha!" Greg cackled as several fairies formed to guide even more clouds of smoke to continue dissolving the Rune Beasts.

"You just had to push him." Andrew sighed.

"I regret nothing." Chris shrugged, drawing his bow again and continuing to shoot, creating even more portals for the Rune Beasts to fall into.

Suddenly a roar echoed out across the field, and the Rune Beasts changed tactics. Essence Beasts covered themselves in Essence armor, Qi Beasts infused their skin with Qi, and the rare Spirit Beast rose up on Spirit threads to fly towards the walls. Greg scowled as he could no longer get to the Essence Beasts, while the Qi Beasts were a lot more resistant to his smoke, though with effort he could still burrow his way in. But if the Spirit Beasts were just going to offer themselves like that… He grinned as his smoke began to target the flying Rune Beasts. He was loving that these guys stored their energy in their cores instead of their bodies.

A moment later, the horde crashed into the wall, literally, causing the entire structure to shudder under the impact, the Rune Beasts only withstanding the impact thanks to their armor and regeneration. They continued to charge into the wall as they swarmed over each other, a mound of thrashing bodies forming at the base of the wall, slowly making its way to the top. "Shoulda put a few portals on the wall." Chris muttered to himself as he looked down at the Rune Beasts.

"Ready!" Albert yelled out as everyone stationed on the wall prepared to defend against the oncoming Rune Beasts, brandishing their spears to jab at the ones that approached the top of the wall. The Cultivators had already taken down the Spirit Beasts that had escaped Greg, but they couldn't keep the horde from reaching the top, relying on the soldiers to keep them at bay while they whittled them down. The strongest Cultivators, including Victoria, were kept back for when the Rune Beasts managed to get a foothold, ready to jump in and clear them out.

As the horde began to get closer to the top, Andrew reached out and grabbed the core of one of the Rune Beasts and yanked, grunting with effort as he dragged the core out of it, the Rune Beast collapsing lifelessly. "Shit." Andrew grimaced. "I can't do that more than a few times."

"Hey, it's something, right?" Chris patted him on the shoulder.

Andrew sighed. "Yeah, but look at what you and Greg are doing! It just- feels like I should be doing more."

"Well, Greg and I can do so much because we never contend directly against them." Chris muttered, throwing up a portal to block the Rune Beast cresting the wall. "Do you have anything like that? Something that's more incidental than a direct attack?"

Andrew frowned, pointing at where Greg was dissolving another Rune Beast. "How is that not a direct attack?"

"Well, it's a direct attack on their body I suppose, but I meant like will to will direct. Our methods don't contest control over a body or connection or anything like that. He's just dissolving their body, and the fact that they can't survive without it is on them. Like stabbing someone. You can't really contest that with your will, you can only block or avoid it." Chris elaborated. "Your aura, on the other hand, attacks their connection to their body, so of course they'd resist it. So attack something else."

"I don't have anything else to attack!" Andrew protested.

"That sounds like a you problem." Chris shrugged.

Andrew scowled. "That's not helping."

"You aren't helping!" A nearby guard snapped, stabbing at a Rune Beast climbing over the wall.

"Oh, right, the battle." Chris nodded, taking out a spear and beginning to stab along with the rest. "Come on, Andrew, chop chop."

"I hate you so much." Andrew grumbled as he took his spear and began to stab at the Rune Beasts as well.

The battle continued to rage as the Rune Beasts continued to swarm against the walls of the town, struggling to climb over it or tear it down, though since Greg continued to repair any damage to the wall, the latter was a lost cause. As the battle wore on, injuries began to pile up, and with injuries came casualties, guards and Hunters alike falling to the unending swarm. Worse, the Rune Beasts continued to grow stronger, the first waves consisting mainly of Rune Beasts in the Energy Gathering Realm and the early stages of Core Strengthening, but the later ones had Rune Beasts at the peak of Core Strengthening, forcing the Cultivators to take a much more active role in the battle, eventually replacing the guards on the front lines, leaving only Victoria, Horace, Ursa, and Tiffany in reserve for emergencies.

"There has to be a Beast Lord behind this." Horace muttered. "Only Beast Lords can drive Rune Beasts to such a fervor."

"A Beast Lord?" Victoria frowned.

"A Rune Beast in the Unification Realm." Horace replied.

"In the what?!?" Victoria's head whipped around, looking at him wide-eyed. "How are we supposed to deal with something like that!?!"

"If it's a fresh Beast Lord, I should be able to handle it, but… a Beast Lord will always have lieutenants in the Circulatory Realm. I can't handle them while I'm dealing with the Beast Lord." Horace's frown deepened.

"And we don't have any Circulatory Realm Cultivators." Victoria muttered, following his train of thought. "We're screwed, aren't we?"

"Not necessarily." Horace shook his head. "I can't talk down a Beast Tide, but if I can talk to the Beast Lord, figure out why they're doing this, then maybe I can put a stop to this."

"Then go do that! What are you waiting for?!?" Victoria exclaimed.

"I don't know where the Beast Lord is!" Horace protested. "It's hiding somewhere! I've noticed a few lieutenants, but they're keeping to the back, goading the rest. I have Philmore searching, but he hasn't had any luck."

"So what, we just wait until it decides to show itself?!? Our people are dying!" Victoria snapped.

"There's nothing I can do!" Horace replied. "If I could find it, I'd do something, but I can't!"

Victoria scowled, looking out over the horde. "I'll find it." She growled, creating point gathering points throughout the horde, looking for a Unification Realm amount of energy. "There!" She pointed, before freezing. "And- and there. And there… oh we're so screwed." She gulped. There were four! Four Unification Realm Rune Beasts! Twenty in the Circulatory Realm! "Chris!"

Chris appeared next to her. "What's up?"

"We need portals! We need to get everyone out of here now! There are four Unification Realm Rune Beasts out there!" Victoria exclaimed.

"Four?!?" Horace exclaimed. "How- where-" He gulped. "I- I could still talk-"

"We are not risking everyone on the chance you can talk them down!" Victoria snapped, before turning to Chris. "Evacuate the civilians in the castle first, then open up portals for the soldiers. We'll retreat all at once."

"Got it." Chris nodded, before disappearing.

Horace blinked at him. "Where did you find a Cultivator with a spatial Rune?" He then shook his head. "Nevermind, not important. You won't be able to outrun Beast Lords with a single spatial Cultivator!"

"Chris isn't a spatial Cultivator and he's more than capable of keeping everyone safe." Victoria muttered dismissively as she looked for her father. He needed to know about this. "Found him!" She exclaimed, using her Spirit threads to fly over to him. "Father! There are four Unification Realm Rune Beasts leading the Beast Tide! If we stay, we're all dead! We need to evacuate into Chris's world!"

Albert froze for a moment as he struggled to process that. "Get- get the castle first! We'll defend as long as we can, but no soldier leaves until all the civilians are safe!"

"I already sent him there." Victoria nodded. "As soon as he's done, he's going to open portals for everyone to retreat. We just need everyone to be ready."

Albert blinked. "Then- good, yes." He turned to his lieutenants. "Make sure everyone is ready to retreat!"

"Yes, sir!" They saluted, rushing to inform everyone of the plan.

It didn't take long for Chris to finish up at the castle, and soon he was back on the wall, several of his selves running along it and opening portals for the defenders. "Get ready!" Albert roared. "Three, two, one, break!" The guards broke first, jumping into the portals, followed by the lower ranked Hunters, and finally the Cultivators.

"Ay! Where's everyone going?" Greg asked, landing on the wall next to Chris.

"Apparently there are really strong Rune Beasts in the Tide, so we're leaving." Chris shrugged.

"Oh. Did you make sure you got everyone?" Greg cocked his head as he watched the Rune Beasts clamber over the wall.

Chris frowned. "They should have all been at the castle, right?" Victoria jumped as Chris appeared next to her. "Hey, everyone that needed to be evacuated was in the castle, right?"

Victoria frowned. "Yes, of course. Where else would they- fuck, Semloh!" Victoria's eyes widened as she remembered the Lord Inspector she kidnapped with the Hidden Blades.

"Where?" Chris asked, opening a portal over the city.

"There!" Victoria pointed to where Semloh was hidden. "About four meters down!"

"Got it." Chris nodded, jumping through and shooting an arrow towards the location. He appeared next to it, and opened a portal for Greg. "There's someone down here, about four meters. Find him."

"Got it." Greg nodded, bursting into smoke and flowing into the ground. A moment later, a tunnel appeared. "Found him!" Greg announced, running out of the tunnel carrying a wide-eyed Semloh.

"Who are you people?!?" Semloh exclaimed.

"No time, in you go!" Greg exclaimed, tossing him inside. Rune Beasts were already filling the town, destroying everything as they rampaged.

"Why aren't you going in?" Chris cocked his head.

"Because the last time we did this, I got stuck in there while you had all the fun running away." Greg replied. "Not this time. This time I get to have fun being the immortal bastard people can't pin down!" He looked around. "Now where are these uber Rune Beasts?"